What/who is being referenced with Jesus' use of 'episkope/s' in Luke 19:44, translated from Greek as 'visitation' in the NASB and most other bibles?

Question

Luke 19:44 (NASB) "...and will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.

Jesus is on the Mount of Olives, not long before his crucifixion, many disciples in tow, when some of the Pharisees in the accompanying multitude speak out and say, - "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." - His disciples had just praised Jesus thus:- "BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD" - Luke 38. Jesus, in the subsequent verses leading up to verse 44, issues what amounts to a proclamation of impending doom for Jerusalem, it's people and their temple, basically for not recognizing what his disciples had already intonated, in that he, as the true Son of God had come in the name of the Almighty God to reign as king... (The fact that this kingdom reign was not to happen for some time, is beside the point for the purposes of this Q).

On the face of things, two spiritual and apparently distinctive personages of D/deities are being referenced here, one being the Almighty God and one being the (only begotten) Son of God (brackets mine). The Trinitarians amongst us will naturally take issue with this last sentence but I'm just saying it, as I see it, in Luke, after all. I haven't added, or taken away from the NASB translation. However, if one was to go to the NET bibles translation of the particular verse in question here, it will be seen that the words..."from God"..., with a capital G, have been added after visitation... Is this not an unashamed (add on) attempt to equate Jesus with God, in order to support a Trinitarian bias that is not even evident in the Greek, at least as pertains to Luke 19:37-44, and if so, what are we to deduce from such a blatant addition ??

Answer 1

When reading the Greek, it is all too easy to sometimes confuse several closely related words:

• ἐπισκοπέω = to take care of by looking at, Heb 12:15, 1 Peter 5:2.
• ἐπισκοπή = visitation, Luke 19:44, Acts 1:20, 1 Tim 3:1, 1 Peter 2:12
• ἐπίσκοπος = overseer, supervisor, Acts 20:28, Pil 1:1, 1 Tim 3:2, Tit 1:7, 1 Peter 2:25

In the specific case of ἐπισκοπή (episkopé) which only occurs in the four places listed above, BDAG provides the following meanings:

1. The act of watching over with special reference to being present, visitation, Luke 19:44, 1 Peter 2:12
2. position of responsibility, position, assignment, Acts 1;20
3. engagement in oversight, supervision, 1 Tim 3:1

More specifically in Luke 19:44 (which appears to allude to Wisdom 3:7) we have Jesus talking to the city of Jerusalem, V41-44, and what would happen to it in the near future:

41 As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it 42 and said, “If only you had known on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will barricade you and surround you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will level you to the ground—you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation

This speech in Luke 19 immediately follows the triumphal entry to Jerusalem, whereupon Jesus then clears the temple of its "robbers".

I do not see any direct reference to "deities", or the Mount of Olives, except previously from whence He had already departed in V29. The crowd (V38) quotes Ps 118:26,

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.

This reference to the OT YHWH is frequent in the NT which often attributes these titles to Jesus, but not in this case. The crowd is clearly saying in V38 that Jesus is comiong in the name of the Lord/LORD.

The main problem in V44 is who is doing the visitation which about which the Greek text is silent. Many versions supply "from God" at the end of the verse. However, this debatable. Ellicott suggests this -

The time of thy visitation.—The phrase is not found in any other Gospel. The idea of “visitation” presents two aspects, one of pardon (Luke 1:68; Luke 1:78; Luke 7:16), the other of chastisement (1Peter 2:12). In both, however, the act of “visiting” implied looking after, caring for, and so a purpose of mercy. Modern usage—especially, perhaps, the common legal phrase of a man’s dying by the “visitation of God,” of sickness being “His visitation”—has given undue prominence to the latter thought. Here it appears to include both. The Christ had visited it first with a message of peace. Then came the discipline of suffering, and Jerusalem knew not how to make a right use of either.